Patient Penny
by SavvySlick
Summary: Penny was quite the patient young lady... So, yes, a few things had begun to shift over the course of the last few weeks... Maybe her boyfriend wasn't all that he was cracked out to be... And maybe the disappearance of her laundry buddy was a disappointment... But everything would go back to normal eventually. With patience. (One of those what-if stories, you know the drill.)


Fall was… An odd season… Warm when the sun was up- which was probably no more than an hour or two at most- and then cold at all other times… Especially _late_ fall, when the sunsets grew sooner and briefer, as if they were impatient with their task of painting the sky in their vividly colorful hues…

It was a disappointment to young Penny that the sky was already a blackish blue shade by the time she decided to start her walk… She knew she should have came out earlier, but it was just one of those occurrences where the longer you express the will to do something, the less likely you were to do it. As disappointing as the lateness was, at least she got out here in the first place… At least she was _doing_ this at all…

Of course, Penny got out, in general… She _needed_ to- didn't she- in order to walk to work every day, and then walk back afterwards. But on those occasions, she'd take the quickest possible route of travel; unfortunately, this proved to be the least scenic, too. Nothing really but road, cement cracking from age and the wear of previous rainfalls, and buildings which stretched upwards and covered most of the skies…

Lucky then that she could find some tranquility outside of the constant maze of buildings that typically made up her surroundings… And as she stepped through the abandoned park, it made her realize how much she really missed being there… And though it was dark, she suspected that- during the earlier horus of the day- this place would look quite nice in its soft autumn coat; reddened leaves, suspended from threads of stems, and patches of grass with golden, drying tips…

She continued on, walking a little further along what path had weaved it's way through the natural park, until she came to a rolling stop at a bench- big enough to fit maybe three people, at most… It was cold to the touch, clearly not used in quite some time, and Penny wrapped the green cardigan she wore tighter around herself- hoping to, at the very least, distract herself from the cold. The scent it carried- the soft fragrance of lavender (the same lavender that her dryer sheets smelled of) gently washed over her, and though it didn't help much to keep her warm, it was a comfort…

And lord knows she needed some type of comfort right now…

With her back against the edge of the bench, head casted back towards the rather starless sky, it gave her ample time to think… She didn't get that all that often- what with being in what could be considered a full time relationship now. There was rarely a second Penny could be alone with her own thoughts- much less alone in _general_.

Sure… She was _more_ than thankful that her relationship Captain Hammer provided easy access to the opening of the new homeless shelter, certainly, but… Being in a relationship was downright _exhausting_ \- or at least this particular one was. She didn't know quite that much about dating- her experience was slim when it came to these sorts of things- but she doubted it was supposed to be this tiring, while simultaneously so incredibly… Lonely…

When she wasn't struggling to fall asleep to whatever repetitive story the superhero told, or grappling with what few seconds of space lasted _between_ said stories- in some futile attempt to get in a word or two about her own day- she was left to her own devices, sometimes for practical hours on end.

Of course, she could understand the hero being busy, but it seems like after the recent… Well, let's face it, murder of his arch nemesis, the papers just _couldn't_ stay away from him. Interview after interview- the man was always bogged down with constant questions and scheduled appointments with the press. Of course, spending any longer than an hour with the man didn't prove to be much more ideal, but at least it was _something_.

Maybe it was better the villain had been killed at the night of the shelter's opening. True it was… A terribly gorey sight, and in no way was a comfort- knowing that the person you were dating had killed a man, and seemingly with no remorse, from the looks of it- but, if anything, it cued her into the real man she had decided to spend her time with.

Before… All of this mess, he was seemingly rather sweet- but maybe that was just from the initial high that came with any relationship… As more and more time began to pass, and the man became busier and busier- tending to his own popularity more than he even stopped to _glance_ at her- it began to give Penny a couple of second thoughts…

Though, even so, she felt no urges to call it quits on the relationship yet… It had only been a couple of months, was the constant reminder to herself, and in a couple months more, perhaps things would merely sort themselves out on their own. Wasn't a few months too early of a time to end a relationship, anyways?

Not that she would know- of course. She wasn't the most experienced person to ask when it came to those sorts of things.

At the very least she had assumed she'd be able to meet with Billy the next coming Wednesday- to talk the whole thought process over… But he hadn't showed. She didn't find it all that odd, of course- he had skipped a couple of their usual laundromat meetups even _before_ the opening of the shelter… Before Hammer had undergone his change- or at the very least, made his personality a little more obvious.

But then he didn't come the upcoming Saturday either. Or the Wednesday after that. Or the Saturday after that. And on and on, until it actually began to become the slightest bit of a concern. He didn't move, did he? She wouldn't assume so- it would have come up with some of their conversations, surely… And the thought that had come up after that was his physical condition:

What if Billy was _hurt_ in some way? If one got seriously injured, they could be kept in the hospital for a good few weeks or so- maybe even months, as far as she was aware… And of course, he'd have no way of contacting her, either- not like he had her number or anything… Though, she doubted this was the case…

That didn't mean that the doubt had any sort of evidence to support it. Unless her own hopes counted as evidence. Then there'd be plenty.

She chose to hope, however, that the matter was more simple than that. Maybe the fact that the person she was dating practically- no- _literally_ killed a person was more than slightly unnerving to the softer male. True, the villain came close to killing Hammer himself, but Penny hardly thought it fair to solve such a problem with nothing but more violence. At the end of the day, someone would still be killed… If someone had connections with a murderer- whether it was for the 'greater good' (whatever that meant), or not, she'd probably attempt to avoid them, too. Maybe not for a few weeks… But…

But Penny wasn't Billy. And Billy wasn't her, either. She could have no real answer, she supposed, until he came back. She'd keep buying frozen yogurts until then- even if it _did_ mean she'd have to eat two if he never showed… If something _had_ happened to him- either physically, or something which left him emotionally disturbed, it wouldn't _hurt_ to present a comfort food to him. Might even help to smooth the situation over, who knew…

Everything would go back to normal eventually, she decided. Once all the heat died down from the death of that 'Dr Horrible' the papers kept ranting about (an odd name for a villian if you asked her- but of course, no one asked her anything anymore), Captain Hammer would return to being the… Slightly more aware self he was before the whole mess begun.

Life would return to it's decent nature. Her friend would return again. They'd eat together, perched on the rumbling machines which diligently washed their clothes twice every week; she'd ask him where he had been, and he'd give some plausible response. The topic would quickly be abandoned, replaced by thoughts on the day, and what it had in store for either of them.

She didn't know how long it'd take to get back into that flow. But Penny was a very patient girl. She could wait.

She _would_ wait.


End file.
